Ashley Zerr / Literacy and Identity

Hi everyone! My name is Ashley Zerr. I was born in Alberta, Canada but grew up in Morgan Hill, California. This is my third year as a Liberal Studies major at Chico State and I have loved every minute of it. I hope to one day have my own classroom and teach the primary grades.

To me, being a reader means reading everything and anything around. Street signs, restaurant menus, and price tags are all daily reads for the average person. Those who read these are considered readers to me because they are doing just that. Although these are simple reads, they are essential reads for a day to day basis.

Outside of school I do not read a lot if scholarly work. I’ll read the feed from my Twitter and Facebook but rarely will I pick up a book that will make me more “book smart.” I enjoy reading love stories while laying out by the pool but that is the only time I’ll sit down with a book. I think that the reading I do outside of school only connects to the reading I do outside of schools by the fact that I am reading. I may not be reading what one of my teachers may assign but reading is reading. Although I do enjoy my outside reading a lot more than my school reading because I get to chose what I want to read and am not forced to read it.

“Literacy was implicitly defined as the reading of great books that make one a great person rather than as rhetorically effective communication.” (Williams 180) This definition of literacy from William’s article surprised me. I don’t even see how we can define such a broad and misunderstood word. An average person uses literacy everyday to deal with daily, simple tasks. People also use literacy to write papers for their masters programs. The scale of literacy is so spread out that I don’t see how we can measure it or define what is good and what is bad literacy. In Williams article, he says that “the definition of literacy and literary reading in the report were laughably narrow.” (Williams 180) As future teachers, we cannot narrow in on one type or the “right” type of literacy but let our student’s literacy and literary readings be as broad and unique as the students in our class.